Author: nina hovnanian

Walkathon Benefits Syrian Armenians

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

Scenes from the AYF Varak Chapter walkathon

BURBANK-The Armenian Youth Federation- Burbank “Varak” Chapter hosted
a walkathon on February 10 to aid the Armenians currently residing
in Syria. This event raised funds, as well as awareness within the
community, for the Syrian Armenian Crisis.

“Those currently residing in Syria live in a very dangerous environment
as the civil war continues to ignite violence and destruction
throughout the country,” said Armen Tashjian, one of the walkathon
participants. Schools, churches, homes, and community centers have
been torn down. Crimes of kidnapping, murder, and torture have been
executed by rebel and militant forces. As a result, thousands of
Armenians have been displaced, while others continue to struggle
living in the midst of a cross-fire.

Registration began at 10 a.m., where dozens of concerned community
members signed up to participate in the walkathon. At approximately
10:45 am, the eager participants began their 3.5 mile walk toward
the Burbank Youth Center. During the walk, volunteers passed out
informational postcards to stores and pedestrians on the way. The
participants reached their destination at 12:45 pm. Upon arrival, a
member of the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund, Mher Tavidian, spoke about
the organization, highlighting what it does and how it’s effective .

“It was great to see AYF and non-AYF members alike unite under a
common cause to show that we care about the well-being of brothers
and sisters in Syria. As diasporan Armenians, it is our duty to offer
helping hands to fellow Armenians who are in need of aid,” said Harry
Pehlivanian, a member of the AYF-Burbank “Varak” Chapter.

Founded in 1933, the Armenian Youth Federation is the largest and most
influential Armenian American youth organization in the United States,
working to advance the social, political, educational and cultural
awareness of Armenian-American youth. For additional information and
to participate in Syrian assistance efforts visit the Syrian Armenian
Relief Fund’s website:

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN RETURNS TO THE “FREEDOM” SQUARE

06:29 PM | TODAY | POLITICS

Today at 6-7 p.m. Raffi Hovannisian will be in “Freedom” Square. The
representative of the “Heritage” party Armen Martirosyan told the
people who had marched from the presidential residence to the
“Freedom” square.

“The fight goes on, till the victory, there will not be any
distractions”, – he said.

And Raffi Hovannisian’s wife, Armenuhi announced that she will stand
by their side and support them till the last breath.

ARMENIA TO BE INVOLVED IN REGIONAL PROJECT ON CREATION OF ECO-CORRIDORS FOR MIGRATION OF ANIMALS

ARMINFO
Thursday, February 21, 17:20

Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan will take part in a regional project
on creation of eco-corridors that will connect the specially protected
areas, WWF Armenia Head Karen Manvelyan told ArmInfo. The corridors
will allow animals to migrate from one protected area to another
one safely and without hindrance. In addition, the creation of the
corridors will play an important role in protection of bio-diversity
and development of local communities via creation of additional income
sources. Manvelyan added that the grant project to be financed by the
Government of Germany through the KfW Bank will involve a number of
NGOs and local administrations. WWF Armenia, in turn, will play the
role of a coordination body.

On the whole, the eco-corridors will cover the south and the north of
the republic. For instance, in the south the corridors will stretch
from Khosrov reserve to Meghri. Transboundary eco-corridors will
also be created. At the moment the transboundary specially protected
areas are the national parks “Lake Arpi” (Armenia) and “Javakhetia”
(Georgia). In addition, Iran and Armenia are going to create a
transboundary “Peace of Friendship and Park”, which will include
“Arevik” national park from the Armenian side and a 30 thsd ha area
from the Iranian side, where one can find 2500 kinds of plants and
230 species of animals.

Manvelyan stressed that the implementation of the project and
creation of the eco-corridors will play an important role for
Armenian moufflons, Persian leopards and Caucasian bears. To note,
these species are included in the Red Book.

LENA NAZARYAN: “WHAT I DID WASN’T HEROIC. NEXT TIME SOMEONE ELSE WILL DO THE SAME.”
Mаry Mamyan

17:24, February 21, 2013

Lena Nazaryan, the young woman who read a statement during a
press conference of the OSCE observers a day after the February 18
presidential election challenging their evaluation, said she did
nothing heroic.

“If other international organizations again attempt to give a similar
evaluation, then somebody else will get up and take them to task,”
Nazaryan said today at a Media Center discussion regarding the election
and post-election developments.

Nazaryan said the act was to show that domestic observers had the
right to present their evaluation as well.

Arpineh Galfayan, one of the panellists comprised of representatives
of local civic groups, said too much emphasis was placed on elections
every five years and that the struggle for change was a daily battle.

Marineh Manoucharyan argued that Nazaryan’s action was needed to
show that the evaluation of local observers was equally, if not more
important, than those given by international observers.

Manoucharyan saiud that local observers not only understand the
language but that they follow the entire electoral process and remain
at their posts all day monitoring the situation.

Artour Avtandilyan said bribe giving is the hardest of the election
violations to prove and that it is ultimately up to the government
to stamp it out.

“Given that bribe giving remains a fact of life in Armenia, it
means that the government is not interested in eradicating it,”
the activist said.

Arpineh Galfayan said that that the majority of people in Armenia are
still searching for a saviour, an idol, to follow. This often leads
to repeating cycles of despair.

Nevertheless, she believes that society has the potential for
self-organization.

Tzovinar Nazaryan confessed that the official election results were
unexpected and optimistic in the sense that despite the violations
the people went out and voted the conscience.

“Shame on us”, Nazaryan said, “We expected less from our society.”

ACTIVISTS MEET OSCE OFFICE EMPLOYEE

Friday,
February 22

A protest is underway in Baghramian Avenue of Yerevan. An employee of
the OSCE Office met with protesters. He said they are always ready to
receive activists in their office. The employee proposed discussing
the issues in a quiet atmosphere.

The Deputy Chief of Armenian Police Valery Osipian was also present.

He said the protest is not spontaneous and they know what will happen
at the end of the meeting. The OSCE Office representative, however,
expressed willingness to receive protesters. The activists stay
a little distance away as policemen prevent them from approaching
the building.

The protesters said they will not leave the place until they give their
“surprise presents” to OSCE observers.

By the way, it became known that the surprise present is a video
about electoral irregularities.

TODAY, 15:51

Aysor.am

AZERBAIJAN WILL NOT DARE TO DESTROY ARMENIAN AIRPLANES

NEWS.AM
February 22, 2013 | 13:39

YEREVAN. – Azerbaijan will not dare to destroy Armenian civil
aircrafts, Nagorno-Karabakh war hero, Major General Arkadi
Ter-Tadevosyan stated during a press conference on Friday.

“The talk about destroying the Armenian planes fling from [the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) capital city] StepanakertAirport is
a babble,” Ter-Tadevosyan said. As per the General, the Azerbaijani
officials’ statements to this effect are merely a manifestation of
an anti-Armenian propaganda.

“Is it not true that the Azerbaijani aircrafts [, in their turn,]
fly over Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh? And what? Shall we begin
destroying, too?” Ter-Tadevosyan rhetorically asked.

As for the Azerbaijani party’s clarifications that this is not about
destroying but rather forced landing of the airplanes and that this is
a violation of the NKR airspace, Major General Arkadi Ter-Tadevosyan
noted: “So, if they violate, we [, in our turn,] will strike.”

THE FIFTH ELEMENT: FACEBOOK AS A BINDING LINK BETWEEN MEDIA AND SOCIETY DURING PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS

VOTE 2013 | 22.02.13 | 14:18

By JULIA HAKOBYAN
ArmeniaNow Deputy Editor

The extensive exchange of information through instant messages, video
materials and thousands of statuses updates on election violation
alerts has became a distinctive feature of the February 18 presidential
elections, when the social network Facebook for the first time widely
served as a unique and the most convenient platform of news making
both for the electorate and oppositionists.

Enlarge Photo Samvel Martirosyan

Armenian journalists and media experts say that during the recent
elections Facebook, as an alternative source of information, has
compensated to considerably extend access to information in Armenia,
where 18 out 18 national TV channels are controlled by the government.

Experts note that Facebook played a significant role in the campaign
of several presidential candidates and nowadays analyze how Facebook
could, in fact, affect the course of the campaign, and perhaps even
the election’s outcome.

One presidential candidates, Hrant Bagratyan made the first ever
announcement on his nomination via Facebook; another candidate, Vardan
Sedrakyan limited his election campaign to Facebook ‘statuses’, where
he has got about 5,300 “likes”. (A marginal candidate, Sedrakyan got
less than 1 percent of votes in Monday’s election.)

“Sedrakyan is the best example of someone who exclusively used Facebook
for publicity, even the word ‘eposaget’, which describes his occupation
(expert in epic studies) cannot be found in any dictionary, because
it was generated by Sedrakyan and then spread via Facebook,” says
Samvel Martirosyan, a veteran blogger and expert in IT security.

Raffi Hovannisian, the official runner up in the election, is the most
active user of Facebook among candidates; Hovannisian’s campaign was
actively covered on Facebook, and through the election day, his page
had reported on numerous violations, recorded by his team.

“The “likes” on Hovannisian’s page at one point has sharply grown,
reaching about 20,500- nothing to compare to other candidates’ page;
even Paruyr Hayrikyan’s page, after the assassination attempt saw no
drastic growth. (Even though, in general, people expressed sympathy
to Hayrikyan after the attack, when he was shot and hospitalized)

“It is hard to say how Facebook influenced the outcome of elections,
but the interesting fact is that Hovannisian has got more votes in
the presidential elections (539,672) than the leader of opposition
Levon Ter Petrosyan in 2008 ( 351,222) and this perhaps is partly
conditioned by the fact that Hovannisian got a substantial support
of young adults thanks to Facebook.”

Facebook, in fact, was not widespread during the 2008 presidential
elections. To compare, in 2010, when Facebook began to gain popularity
in Armenia there were about 60,000 Armenian users, now the number is
six times more (reaching almost 400,000). In 2008 there were only a
couple of thousand users, who, Martirosyan says, in fact really did
not know how to use such platform for political purposes; the largest
groups in Facebook had counted only 200-300 supporters.

“During the 2008 elections, there was observed an active use of the
blogosphere in Armenia, whereas there were only 200 or so bloggers in
all, but blogs had become a very important factor, since the bloggers’
posts were a real source of information, especially, after the state
of emergency was imposed in the country and the press was banned.

Notably, it did not refer to blogs, perhaps because the blogs were
not known to the large audience, from the other side it was not clear
whether the blogs belong to press or not, and for a certain period of
time people within the country and outside were reading only blogs,
to learn information other than state propaganda. ”

Laura Baghdasaryan, the Director of Region Research Center, which
is implementing studies of 2013 presidential elections coverage
on Facebook, says the recent presidential election clearly showed
that Facebook, played a huge role in formation of discourse in
the process of presidential elections. (Early in January, ahead of
the presidential campaign start, the center has published a study
“Facebook as a campaign platform in Armenia”, comprising the results
of monitoring of the pages of candidates, political figures, and
supporters of certain political forces in Facebook. Another report
is to be published next week.)

“We cannot directly link the Facebook factor with the outcome of the
elections, but the fact is that Facebook is gaining more popularity
with each day and all the controversy and the diversity of opinions
that exist in today’s society, has a mirror and immediate reflection
on Facebook,” Baghdasaryan says.”Our studies have shown all the topics
that appear on the political agenda and scene, are on Facebook and
around those topics, there appear discussions, debates, which sometimes
turned into information battles between two camps.”

Baghdasaryan notes that only a limited number of opposition-related
events are covered by the local TV channels, and gives the example
of the latest protest by the civil society activists, who broke into
the February 19 press conference of the OSCE / ODIHR observers to
read their own assessment of elections.

“Public television did not cover this event all, which I think was
ill-advised, since such behavior from the authorities only aggravate
the informational vacuum that exists in out television.”

However, both Baghdasarian and Martirosyan believe that Facebook as
well as other alternative sources of information in Armenia ( such
as Youtube, Twitter, Civilnet online channel and others) have played
a significant role in the freedom of speech in the last couple of
years and appeared as a message to authorities of the senselessness
to withhold information.

GREECE ISSUES VERBAL NOTE TO TURKEY OVER CONTINENTAL SHELF

February 22, 2013 – 14:47 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Greece has issued a verbal note to the United Nations
over Turkey’s decision to grant hydrocarbon exploration permits for
parts of the Mediterranean that the Greek government considers part
of its continental shelf, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

“This action safeguards Greece’s stance in defense of our country’s
sovereign rights, in accordance with the customary and conventional
Law of the Sea, and specifically the UN Convention on the Law of the
Sea (1982),” said a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry on Feb 21.

Greek Foreign Minister Dimitro Avramopoulos said that the areas Turkey
had granted exploration permits for in the Mediterranean were deemed
to fall within the Greek continental shelf. The ministry said that
“directly upon learning of Turkey’s granting of permits, the Greek
government proceeded to the appropriate demarches to Turkey.”

Turkey carried out a seismic search for energy sources in the
Mediterranean in response to a similar Greek Cypriot search, the
HDN says.

“Greece wants to have good neighborly relations with Turkey, as well
as with all the countries in its region, based on mutual respect and
international legality, particularly regarding matters that concern
our sovereign rights and the exploitation of our natural wealth,”
the Greek Foreign Ministry statement said.

THE VICIOUS CIRCLE AND CORRUPTION ARE CONNECTED WITH SERZH SARGSYAN, RUBEN HAKHVERDYAN SAYS

February 21 2013

According to the artist, the bridges between the people and Serzh
Sargsyan have been burnt for a long time. asked
the beloved artist, songwriter and singer Ruben Hakhverdyan what
he thought of the 2013 presidential election. We also noted that
people at yesterday’s rally of Raffi Hovhannisyan had danced to the
song “The Wind of Mountains.” He said that he hadn’t participated
in the rally, because he had a concert in Lachin, along with a
few songwriters and singers. “The people there are in such a bad
condition, but I certainly called and have information, I know
that Raffi won objectively. I am close to our environmentalists;
they were holding a separate demonstration, unfortunately, I wasn’t
able to participate in their demonstration either. I imagine what
condition Serzh Sargsyan is in. Why, he knows that he hasn’t won;
how will he preside over this country, so to say, after that?” In
response to our question whether he thought that all the bridges
between Serzh Sargsyan and the people were burnt, Ruben Hakhverdyan
said: “Why, they have been burnt for a long time already; how long
can one bear this clownishness? I understand that one half says
the Russians are behind him, the others say something else. Well,
shouldn’t our people have their say? We are an independent country,
aren’t we?” Did he follow the election campaigns of the candidates;
is he aware of their programs? The artist said that he hadn’t,
and he hadn’t gone to vote either. “In my opinion, Raffi is not a
plaster saint, but the man was elected objectively. By the way,
I have always said in interviews: ‘Anyone, but Serzh Sargsyan,’
because that vicious circle and corruption are directly connected
with Serzh Sargsyan. How can he struggle against himself?” As for
selling votes for 5000 drams, our interlocutor thinks: “It is a sign
of ignorance and backwardness; those people are so disappointed that
they think Serzh Sargsyan will win this way or another, but who said
that, huh…? It was proved that it is not so; I was proud of those
people at last, because they didn’t behave like serfs. The residents
of Gyumri proved that this town exists, and Gyumri is basically the
capital, and Yerevan proved this time that Yerevan is also a city,
after all; Raffi won in Yerevan too.” Gohar HAKOBYAN

Read more at:

© 1998 – 2013 Aravot – News from Armenia

POLICY FORUM ARMENIA: FEBRUARY 18 ELECTION RESULTS SKEWED IN FAVOR OF SERZH SARGSYAN

13:32, February 22, 2013

Policy Forum Armenia (PFA) just concluded its preliminary analysis
of the official results of Armenia’s 2013 Presidential Election based
on the data provided by the Central Election Commission.

Consistent with eyewitness accounts and a large body of local media
reports, our analysis-which we summarize below-confirms the following:

Presence of a significant and systemic effort to artificially inflate
the voter turnout (Figure 1, Panel 1). The deviations from the expected
pattern (i.e., the normal or Gaussian distribution) appear to be larger
than those found in our analysis of the 2008 Presidential Election
(see Figure 1 in PFA’s Report on “Armenia’s 2008 Presidential Election:
Select Issues and Analysis”).

This turnout-enhancing fraud was conducted on behalf of the incumbent,
Serge Sargsyan, and against the main challenger, Raffi Hovannisian
(Figure 1, Panels 1 and 2). The deviations from the expected pattern
are massive and exceed the range found during the 2008 election (see
Figure 2 in PFA’s Report on “Armenia’s 2008 Presidential Election:
Select Issues and Analysis”).

In addition to artificially inflating the voter turnout, votes cast
in favor of Raffi Hovannisian and other opposition candidates were
fraudulently assigned to Serge Sargsyan: for every 100 ballots cast in
polling stations with artificially high voter turnout, Serge Sargsyan
received 105 votes (as measured by the slope of the straight line on
Figure 2, Panel 1).

Voter turnout was inflated by ballot stuffing, among other means. As
shown on Figure 2, Panel 3, the number of invalid ballots declined
as the voter turnout increased, a clear sign of ballot stuffing. This
result contrasts with the findings of the 2012 Parliamentary Election,
where ballot stuffing was not found to be a major factor (See PFA’s
report on “Armenia’s 2012 Parliamentary Election”).

There are indications that invalid ballots were counted in favor
of the incumbent (Figure 2, Panel 4). The share of votes assigned
to Serge Sargsyan is larger in polling stations where the ratio of
ballots treated as “invalid” is lower.

There is strong evidence of voter-counting fraud in polling stations
in rural areas. The digit tests (Figure 3) reveal signs of human
interference in voter counting (e.g., reassigning of ballots from one
candidate to another, etc.) as measured by a significant deviation from
the uniform distribution (of votes cast in favor of two front-runners)
in polling stations outside of Yerevan and Gyumri.

All in all, we conclude that in polling stations not affected by
falsifications, the main opposition candidate, Raffi Hovannisian,
shows a lead of at least 4 percent of the vote. This, however,
is likely to be the lower bound of the difference between the two
front-runners, because of the extent of violations in favor of Serge
Sargsyan, as mentioned earlier.

This analysis challenges-in the strongest possible way-the official
version of the events, the statement of the OSCE-ODIHR observer
mission, and the reports in Western media outlets about the extent
of violations that took place on February 18, 2013.

Our results strongly indicate that the final outcome of February 2013
election was subject to massive manipulations and interference and
did not reflect the free will of the Armenian citizens.

They also call into question the role of foreign election observers
in the Armenian context, specifically their impartiality and ability
to detect election fraud that is becoming ever more sophisticated.

We strongly encourage Raffi Hovannisian and his supporters to
forcefully pursue either a system-wide recount of ballots (which
would undoubtedly reduce the share of the incumbent’s votes and lead
to the second round election) or a complete annulment of the election
outcome, as the only ways forward for the country and its people.